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The Pea Instanton
 

Another theory championed by theorists Stephen Hawking and Neil Turok was recently brought forth for public consumption. It is called the Pea Instanton. This theory is not one created by observation, rather was formed purely from mathmatical equations.

A major thorn in the side to thoerists of the early universe has been the singularity. So what do theorists do? Remove the thorn....or in this case.....remove the singularity.  The Pea Instanton is not a point in space and time, rather it is an emerging blend of space and time. It has no point of creation, no past, and no future.  This "pea" is described by one of its creators as being a ball with dimples.....like a pea. It is these dimples, caused by quantum fluctuations,  that provide the shape of the sprouting universe.

It is out of this mind-wrapping mass that the universe sprang.

Now time for problems for this theory:

  1. 1.    The singularity may not be totally eliminated and may yet survive within the primordial soup of the instanton.
  2. 2.    The Pea Instanton Theory would give rise to a universe that is too open. The galaxies would be so far apart that even the Hubble Space Telescope would not be able to see them.
  3. 3.    Hawking and Turok's theory uses quantum tunneling to make energy from nothingness. Quantum tunneling basically says that things go vast distances in a very short amount of time. In this theory, energy travels from nowhere....to exsistance.
The response from Turok disputes the classifing of his theory coming from quantum tunneling. However, he does recognize the flaw concerning the universe being too open and suggests further tinkering for the theory. As for the singularity, he agrees that it would be imbedded in the pea, but it would be so small and insignificant that  you could totally discount it.

Only time will tell if this theory holds water or gets washed away like the Big Bang.
 

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